红煤

This is the story of how a coal miner born to a peasant family, advanced his career by means fair or foul, and how the demands of success can distort a soul and change a person's humanity. In the mid 1980s, Song Changyu, a peasant's son working in a state-run coal mine, tries any means he can think of to win the heart of the mining director's daughter, for which the mine director fires him. This plants the seed of hatred in his heart. Later, he successfully courts the daughter of the Red Coal Yard Village party’s secretary, and becomes the director of the village-run coal mine. Now, rolling in money, desires grow and the evil emerges in his heart. This novel paints a subtle, detailed picture of protagonist Song Changyu's aspirations, struggles, vengeance, and fall from grace. The author is intimately familiar with life in coal mines, and in his writing we find a poise that bears these burdens as though they were weightless. He takes us on a leisurely stroll through their world that will leave you amazed. His description of the coal miner's life is matchless, giving us a living, breathing, red-blooded portrait of their experience.